Growth and flowering behavior of newly evolved hybrid of gladiolus (Gladiolus hybrida L.) under different plant spacing and corm size in mid hill areas of Himachal Pradesh

An investigation was conducted to study the influence of corm size and plant spacing on growth, flowering and corm production in newly developed hybrid of gladiolus (Hb 1–8). Three corm sizes (3.0–3.5 cm, 3.6–4.0 cm and 4.1–4.5 cm) and three spacing (30 x 6, 30 x10 and 30 x 14 cm) were tested in randomized block design, replicated thrice. The gladiolus hybrid Hb1-8 with S₃ and P₃ showed better performance w.r.t. number of days taken for sprouting (13.11 days), plant height (88.23 cm), number of days taken for bud break (100.29 days), number of days taken for first floret opening (104.45 days), spike length (73.44 cm), number of corms per plant (1.69) and number of cormels (33.76).